Archive for the ‘Goal Setting’ Category
Imagine a world without stress. Imagine a world where no-one is demanding anything from you. Imagine you are the happiest you could possibly be. Can you imagine all that? I hope so, because if you cannot, that is a sure sign that you require some “ME” time.
If you can imagine all those things, then you are probably doing a lot of self-care already, as you appreciate the importance of looking after self. You appreciate and understand why it is imperative to look after your own safety on an aeroplane before your child, because if something were to happen to you first (like you do not get enough oxygen), then you are of no help to your child.
Now, just very quickly think of all the things that have been building up over the past year, and specifically those things that have spilled over into this year. Can you picture them? Has your mood changed? Is the weight of the world sharing its burden on you right now? It’s so easy to get caught up in the woes of the world, the media, our networks and indeed our own families. Is it over-burdening, over-whelming, too much to bear?
And my question to you is simply: Compared to what?
How do you know this is good for you? Are you coping with all the stress a new year can bring? On top of all the left over trauma of 2011?
Now, bear with me here and really think about the following. Write them down so you can check on them at the end of this post:
Think about the best thing that happened to you last year. Think about your greatest achievement of 2011. Think about your biggest learning for 2011. Think about the relationships you nurtured in 2011, new and old. Think about the single happiest thing that happened in 2011.
Now, pat yourself on the back, schedule some “Me” time for every day this year and plan for great things to happen, because then they will. If you write them down, and say them loudly to yourself, then you are setting the tone for your year to come.
And if you are overwhelmed just now, still reeling from the effects of 2011 and the holiday period, read this inspiring blogpost on starting your year in February, not January 
Happy New Year, and may 2012 bring you everything you plan for.
Hi there,
I just want to wish everyone a fantastic holiday and very best wishes for 2012, whatever you look forward to this year, make sure you write down at least ONE thing from your wish list, and really tell yourself you will achieve it this coming year!! Go on, it will work, I promise!
And my message to you… click here to see
To your best year yet!
Elaine
Yes, it’s that time of year again. And yes, it can be very stressful.
- Have you left your card sending until the last minute?
- Have you left your Santa buying until the last minute?
- Have you left your Christmas Shopping until the last minute?
- Have you left buying the tree until the last minute?
- Have you left everything until the last minute?
If you answer YES to any of the above questions, then read on to learn a few tips on managing your stress better this year.
“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday” ~ Don Marquis
Now, for a fact – we can only experience the present moment. YES, we can really only actually experience every moment once. Everything else is imagined, whether past or future.
So if you are stressing about past Christmases, or any past event, then you are relying on memory to provide the stress factors. Those stress factors can limit us in our everyday tasks. If you are stressing about the coming Christmas, or any future event, then you are just imagining it and creating your own stress factors. Based on what? Future event stress is normally based on previous events, so we are back in the past, which is imaginary, remember?
So how do we DO procrastination? How do we manage to NOT do the important things? How do we let stress effect our wishes and goals?
Here we go, a little exercise for you:
- Get into the role of Christmas shopping, decorating the house, planning the dinner, handling the in-Laws
- See yourself in that role, doing those things
- Now imagine the PERFECT day shopping, decorating or planning
- What happens in that day? What do you see, what do you hear? What do you notice? What do you smell? What are you feeling? (really, really get into the feeling of it, remember this is your PERFECT day)
- What exactly happens in that day? And when?
- Now simply, imagine how you can grasp as much of that as possible. What can you tap into, what can you access?
That’s it! The rest doesn’t matter, because it’s negative, and we want positive don’t we?
Do this exercise a few times and feel the difference about the situation now. How does it feel different? Keep those feelings in mind and remind yourself of your perfect day when it’s time to do that thing!
“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task” ~ William James
*If you would like to learn more about tackling procrastination and the benefits of coaching, please contact Elaine through the Contact Page or by telephone at +353 (0)86 1955660. Be the CHANGE you want to be in 2012!*
Welcome to my world…
To follow is a copy of an email I sent to my close network. So rather than bombard everyone in my network, I am producing the mail below for you to read, if interested
Hi there, happy weekend!
I haven’t been in touch in a while now and wanted to let you know how the Mini Marathons went, the fundraising and of course, what the hell I am doing now.
Firstly, I am delighted to report I am pain free, unlike this time last year when I was crippled, and had to give up running altogether. My waistline was not happy!
So after intense self care and chiropractic treatments in Spring, I was promised I would be doing the 3 things I love again – gardening, driving my motorbike and running. At first it was a struggle, and my health seemed to be deteriorating rather than improving, but finally after about 2 months, I suddenly began to feel huge improvements.
So much so that I was back running with a great new podcast programme, building my distance, stamina and endurance over 9 weeks, ready for the Cork and Limerick Mini Marathons. Not only did I finish both without killing myself, I improved on last year’s times with little effort. I felt great
I decided to dedicate my efforts for charity – Age Action this time. In light of the bad weather we had last year, I felt the elderly were in dire need of vital funds, and it would give me a greater focus for my training. And it worked! I completed both runs successfully, and am delighted with the progress on last year, which was so difficult I really believed I wouldn’t run again. Read the rest of this entry »
I am no stranger to health and fitness, having been a part of various therapies, classes and courses over the years, mostly as a preventative rather than a cure. Those of you who know me personally will attest to the fact I have NEVER dieted, but do not indulge in fast and overly processed foods, but like anyone else, have my “weak” areas.
Cork Mini Marathon bib 2010
I fought these weak areas for a long time, and there is something about turning 40 that helps us realise that health is so important, because without it, you do not have quality of life.
Now I allow myself my indulgences whenever I want them, and compensate by eating healthily otherwise, drinking lots of water and exercising on a regular basis. To be truthful, mostly my exercising consists of brisk long walks, and generally going to a class of some kind.
Last year, in beginning of 2010, I discovered running was a faster way to improve fitness and endurance, and of course kick me back into a state of racing heartbeat and pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. I wrote a post about it at the time about motivation, and decided to achieve my goals by training for both the Cork Women’s Mini Marathon AND the Limerick Women’s Mini Marathon. I followed a programme to the minute, and achieved my training goals for the first race. The second race was exactly a week later and unfortunately I did enough damage to my lower back that Read the rest of this entry »
W
hen I was in a 9-5 job in 1993, I distinctly remember arriving into work on Monday mornings and being subjected to complaints, grumbles, disdain, and other such negative gossip.
This was the only negative about my Monday mornings. In fact I never had Monday morning blues because I practiced a very simple alternative. Back then, in my early 20’s living and working in recession Ireland (yes, we had one then too) the general gist of good fun was to go out with colleagues and friends.
Traditionally this was done Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Three late nights of overindulgence was bound to take it’s toll, and it did. Coming from a college background, I had become accustomed to going out on “College nights” (aka Thursday nights). I maintained this routine and did not go out late on Sunday nights.
Of course this meant that Friday mornings were tough, but one cannot have Friday blues if they are off for the weekend, and have an early finish to look forward to. So I was therefore able to camouflage my blues into a Friday, rather than a Monday.
However, I feel the negative sentiment has remained with many people, whether they are employed, self-employed, or between jobs.
Why should we dread Monday Mornings? Because we have done so traditionally. For some of us, it’s simply always been that way (similar to finding it difficult to get up in the mornings).
Here are a couple of measures you can take to beat the Monday Morning Blues: Read the rest of this entry »
This blog post is dedicated to RW and written to invoke thought, not provide you with the skills and attributes needed to be an Entrepreneur. There are hundreds of articles out there to provide you with the “know-how”. I am exploring the “why-how”.
My life:
3 yrs ~ Montessori school, fun learning of the basics.
4 yrs ~ Primary School, initially fun to evolve into evening homework, mandatory sports, trips to the Headmaster’s office and mandatory conforming to the rules of the school.
12 yrs ~ Secondary School, more mandatory subjects, mandatory sports, mandatory extra-curricular activities, optional extra subjects (instead of playtime), mandatory career guidance (I won’t bore you with the obvious advice from a religious convent.)
17 yrs ~ Third Level, optional everything. Chaos!
20 yrs ~ Out on my ear. Get a job.
24 yrs ~ I opt out. Sound familiar?
Two decades of being inside numerous education systems. I finally came to the conclusion, the working life I had been groomed for, did not suit me. I may have also thought I did not suit this working life. My instincts told me that I would make money in my life, but not the way I was conditioned to. Where do I turn for guidance? When every person I knew was conditioning me to “get a job”.
24 yrs ~ Enter a boy Read the rest of this entry »
Planning an event can be tremendously stressful for some. I have had clients stress over Christamas to the point where complete sabotage and failure are guaranteed. So how can we plan for an event and ensure that we don’t miss anything important?
We can write a list – what to do, what to buy, when to do it. This list can be in the form of chronological importance or priority importance. So let’s back track a bit and assume you are already struggling with ideas and the basic plan, not to mind the where, when, why and how-to?
Very often, someone wants to plan a surprise or event for a friend or loved-one. This can prove an almost debilitating exercise for many; so what I want to to is look at ONE possibility that can help your life to be easier, less stressful and ultimately organised. This will ensure that you enjoy the event as much as the person or people you are organising it for.
Because we are now over the indulgence of Christmas, and have embarked on a journey of resolutions and lying low for January, we do need some indulgence to get some spark back. Read the rest of this entry »
This month we are running with a great series of TOP 10 tips for your business survival for the traditional break, and on into the New Year.
TIP NO 4:
I ~ INSIGHT
IN PEACE, PREPARE FOR WAR
IN WAR, PREPARE FOR PEACE
SUN TZU
This very simple message was missed by many during the boom decade of 1996–2006. Those in business must realise the importance of vision, enthusiasm and planning.
Yet many of us fail to visualise where our business will be in 5 years, and allow external factors to guide us. The problem right there is if we allow economic, political or other external factors to guide our business, then we fall when those factors fall. Read the rest of this entry »
Hi there – Welcome to Seefin Coaching’s TOP 10 Christmas Tips for the survival of your business (and you!)
This time we are going to count down (up) to Christmas with our great series of TOP 10 tips for getting your business ready for the 2010 wind-down.
We are running with the theme of C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S for this year.
So here we go – going to kick off first with:
TIP NO 1:
C ~ CHARITY begins at home, and with your business. It’s so important at this time of year to look after yourself, your health, and your business. Ensure to plan “gaps” into your weekly/daily diary instead of the opposite “cramming as much as you can into year-end”.
It’s also a good time to think about transferring certain tasks to earlier in the year when planning for 2011, to ensure you do not end up with a jam-packed December with no chance to “wrap-up” successfully. Especially if you are traditionally busy in the winter months leading up to year-end. Often, summer can be very quiet for certain types of businesses, and this is a great time to get the business “chores” out of the way.
Be kind to yourself, and come back in a couple of days to read our next set of CHRISTMAS tips for your Business.
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